Friday, July 29, 2011

Under, In Erebus

There are two things I am proud of in this game, one that I figured out that the puzzles were wordplay-based and that I got naked first thing. Preemptive nakedness.

I've discovered by now that I can't find my way around maps to save my life, so I mapped this dark underground cavern, and I have to say that the OCD in me enjoyed the fact that the island was symmetrical. (I redid my map, just to make it look nicer.)

Onto the actual gameplay. I feel like, this is what an afterlife would be like for an adventure gamer. They'd be thrust into an underground cavern with all sorts of odd and mysterious things, hints and puzzles. This game also felt like that because honestly it took awhile to figure things out, which you'd need in the afterlife.

As I said, I felt that the puzzles were word-based, but I fell just short of figuring out how to create those words. I was trying to figure that maybe putting the sheep in box 2 would get me _H_, because the 2nd letter of sheep is an H. I checked other reviews and then figured out that it was an ewe. After that it became pretty smooth sailing, but overcoming that realization hump was the doozy, and it's tough to suggest better ways to overcome that hum, because once you know the secret, it's really difficult to go back and decide if the game is well-hinted enough or too poorly hinted.

Once that fell into place, the rest of the stuff was pretty manageable to create and manipulate, and it was an enjoyable game that had a lot of cool extras programmed in. I feel bad because I realize that for many people, playing the actual game won't start for at least an hour in (does the time it takes to map the game count as playing it?) One quibble, I felt pretty horrified at vaporizing/sacrificing the sheep, but I do like to think she was just transported back to her cave.

Cool premise, cool puzzles, a bit of a learning curve, but if I was stuck in Erebus, I'd enjoy this game.

There is a post-comp release where many of the shortcomings have been fixed, and I'd recommend looking into that.

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About Me

I love using games for their ability to tell unique and amazing stories that make us think about ourselves. I have a tendency towards the dark and mysterious, but I also firmly believe that games can be used to help improve our lives and increase awareness and empathy.